Jordi Folch Pi facts for kids

Jordi Folch Pi (born March 25, 1911 – died October 3, 1979) was a Spanish scientist. He was a biochemist who worked at Harvard University. People around the world knew him as one of the main founders of a science field. This field studies the structure of complex fats, called lipids. He also helped create Neurochemistry, which is the study of the brain's chemistry. Neurochemistry is now a special part of Neuroscience, which studies the nervous system.

Jordi Folch Pi's Early Life

Jordi Folch Pi was born in Barcelona, Spain. His father, Rafel Folch, was a lawyer and a poet. His mother, Maria Pi, was a teacher. His mother liked to speak French. So, Jordi went to a French high school in Barcelona. He finished high school in 1927. After that, he studied medicine at the University of Barcelona. He earned his medical degree in 1932.

Starting His Science Career

During his medical training, Folch worked as an intern. He also worked as the only doctor in a small village. This village was called Almedret and had about 800 people.

He was lucky to study at the Institute of Physiology in Barcelona. His uncle, August Pi Sunyer, helped start this institute. It focused on doing real science research. Folch worked there as an assistant. By the time he got his medical degree, he had already published four science papers.

Folch also studied how the body uses sugar and lactic acid. He worked with Professor Rosend Carrasco Formiguera. Professor Carrasco encouraged Folch a lot in his research. Folch became very interested in how the body works and how it uses energy.

Thanks to Professor Carrasco, a biochemist named Francisco Duran Reynals became interested in Folch. He worked at the Rockefeller Institute in New York. Reynals helped Folch get a chance to work there.

In 1936, Folch was accepted as a research fellow at the Rockefeller Institute. This was just before the Spanish Civil War started. He decided to stay in the United States after the war. His family had been on the losing side of the war.

Moving to the United States

Folch started at the Rockefeller Institute in 1936. He first worked as a volunteer. The next year, he got a formal job. He worked in Donald Van Slyke’s department.

One of Folch's first jobs was to study hormones. He had to analyze fats in blood plasma. He soon found that the usual ways to take out these fats had problems. The methods did not get all the fats. They also left other unwanted things in the sample.

So, he created a new way to get the fats out. This new method solved the problem of contamination. He also helped create a better way to analyze carbon.

Using his new methods, he studied a substance from the brain called "cephalin". Scientists before him thought cephalin was one pure fat. But Folch showed that it was actually a mix of three different fats. He was the first to figure out the structure of one of these fats, called phosphatidyl serine. He also found other important fats in the brain.

In 1944, Folch became the director of a new lab. This was at the McLean Hospital, which is part of Massachusetts General Hospital. He also became a professor at Harvard Medical School. His goal was to understand the chemistry of the brain. He believed that to understand the brain, you needed to find all its parts.

He developed a gentle way to take out fats from brain tissue. This method used a mix of chloroform and methanol. It also used water to separate the fats. This new method became very famous. It is still one of the most cited science papers ever.

The way he purified brain fats is still called "Folching". The special mix he used is called Folch solution. It contains chloroform and methanol. This solution helps separate different types of chemicals. For example, it can separate fats from proteins in blood.

Folch used his method to study how brain fats and proteins change. He looked at how they change during development or when someone has a disease. His method helped find new types of fats and proteins in the brain.

Folch is seen as one of the founders of the study of complex fats. He also helped create the field of neurochemistry. He helped start the American Society for Neurochemistry and the International Society for Neurochemistry. In 1956, he became the first Professor of Neurochemistry at Harvard. In 1978, he was chosen to be a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences. He also received special honors from universities in Spain, France, and Chile. He kept working at McLean Hospital until he passed away.

About His Name

His last name is sometimes written as "Folch-Pi". In Spain, people often use both their father's and mother's last names. When he moved to America and got married, he decided to connect his two last names with a hyphen. This way, his children would carry his full family name.

His last names are often mispronounced. The correct way to say it in Catalan is "Folk Pea".

His Personal Life

In 1945, Folch married Willa Babcock. She was also a smart person who studied languages. She later became a dean at Tufts University. Jordi and Willa had three children.

Jordi Folch Pi passed away in Boston, Massachusetts on October 3, 1979. He was 69 years old.

Awards and Recognitions

• Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1956).
• Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences (1978).
• Honorary professorship from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Barcelona (Spain).
• Honorary degree from the University of Montpellier (France).
• Honorary degree from the University of Chile, Santiago (Chile).
• Medal as honorary councilor of CSIC (Supreme National Council for Scientific Research, Spain).

See also

In Spanish: Jordi Folch i Pi para niños